SyFy Channel Movies

 

To compensate for the temporary defection of Stargate SG-1 regular Michael Shanks, the series' producers contrived to have Shanks' character Daniel Jackson lay down his life to save his SG-1 comrades, whereupon his soul passes to "another plane of existence." Thus, the series' sixth season finds Jonas Quinn (Corin Nemec), emissary from the planet Kelowna, taking Jackson's place with the SG-1 team--mainly because Quinn feels responsible for Jackson's death. Team leader Jack O'Neill (Richard Dean Anderson) is agreeable to Quinn's decision, inasmuch as he needs all the help he can get to vanquish the evil Anubis (David Palffy), who possesses the power to potentially cause all Stargate portals in the universe to destroy one another. Also, O'Neill is a bit worried over the loyalties of Jaffan crewman Teal'c (Christopher Judge), who, brooding over the death of his wife, is wondering if it was a good idea to renounce his loyalty to the hated Goa'uld and cast his lot with the Stargate crew. This season, the SG-1 personnel come across a small alien town that, in true "Cold War" fashion, is a living laboratory for a sinister secret experiment. Also, an assassin plagues Stargate Command's Alpha Site, but no one knows whose side the killer is on; later, O'Neill himself is implicated in a plot to assassinate the pesky senator who has continually blocked funding for the Stargate project. Plus, redoubtable intergalactic con artist Maybourne (Tom McBeath) hoodwinks Jack into transporting him to a "utopian" planet that is anything but; and Teal'c is tormented by weird dreams in which the SG-1 crew have all become firefighters--but is it truly a dream? The sixth season of Stargate SG-1--which, incidentally, is the series' first season at its new cable home, the Sci-Fi Channel--finds the "deceased" Daniel Jackson back on the planet Abydos, site of the original 1995 Stargate movie, bracing himself and the locals against an assault from Anubis--a plot development that is intimately linked with Jonas' discovery of the all-powerful Eye or Ra, which will of course become all-deadly in the Wrong Hands. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

While tracking down a group of Maquis terrorists, the crew of the starship Voyager is caught in a freak plasma storm and hurtled some 75,000 light years from Starfleet Command -- and thus begins the first episode, and the seven-season saga, of Star Trek: Voyager. Upon realizing her plight, Voyager captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) also discovers that a being called the Caretaker has brought both her ship and the Maquis vessel to an uncharted patch of galaxy known as the Gamma Quadrant, in hopes of finding someone who can help him keep his promise to protect a race known as the Ocampa. Before long, Janeway's crew and the Maquis must do battle with a common enemy, the Kazon, and in the ensuing battle the Caretaker dies. It is now up to Janeway and Maquis leader, Chakotay (Robert Beltran), to work together in harmony, with Chakotay becoming Voyager's first officer, and another Maquis warrior, the half-Klingon, half-human B'Elanna Torres (Roxann Biggs-Dawson), taking over as Janeway's chief engineer. Also added to the "Voyager" roster are a brace of Gamma Quadrant aliens, the Ocampan Kex (Jennifer Lien) and the Talaxian Neelix (Ethan Phillips), not to mention the ship's new Doctor (Robert Picardo), actually a holographic human manifestation of the vessel's emergency medical computer program. Rounding out the main cast is Janeway's veteran comrade-in-arms Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill); Kim (Garrett Wang), a green rookie fresh from Starfleet Academy; and the Vulcan Tuvok (Tim Russ),who had signed on the Maquis ship as a Federation spy. Season one of Star Trek: Voyager finds Janeway simultaneously trying to fulfill the Caretaker's promise and to safely guide her crew back to Starfleet Command in the Alpha Quadrant. The season's slam-bang finale is dictated by the treachery of Voyager crew person Seska (Martha Hackett), who turns out to be loyal only to the Kazon. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

 

A stunning sci-fi epic that re-envisions the future of mankind, this top-rated, action-packed original series is "intriguing" (Associated Press), "fascinating" (Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel) and "deep and intense" (Science Fiction Weekly)! Luke Perry ("Beverly Hills 90210," "Oz") stars as Jeremiah, one of the many young survivors of the "Big Death" that claimed the lives of every adult in the world 15 years ago. Now forging his way through a bleak wilderness fraught with danger and conspiracy, Jeremiah and his most trusted friend, Kurdy (Malcolm-Jamal Warner), are plunged into thrilling adventures that test every facet of their humanity... and ultimately the fate of the human race itself!

Once again tampering with mother nature to disastrous results, Dr. Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) continues his research in director Brian Yuzna's second sequel to the 1985 splatter classic Re-Animator. Currently serving time in a maximum security prison for his previous exploits, West's limited prison-cell experiments are suddenly interrupted by the arrival of Howard Phillips (Jason Barry), the new prison doctor and the brother of the girl who suffered from West's experiments 13 years earlier. Knowledgeable of West's previous experiments and eager to assist the mad doctor in continuing his studies, the naive Phillips discovers that West's continued studies have revealed a more effective means of bringing back the dead -- the removal of an individual's Neuroplasm, or soul, and the injection of it into a newly reanimated corpse. An electrical phenomenon discharged at the moment of death, with the discovery of the Neuroplasm West may have finally discovered the missing link to effectively bringing life to death. Or not. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A researcher learns that the desert holds a new sort of danger worse than sunstroke or dehydration in this horror story from South Africa. Alex (Scott Bairstow) is a Canadian scientist who works for a firm that monitors the location and safety of people traveling in dangerous environments. Alex is dispatched to Nambia on an assignment, and soon finds himself thrown in with a handful of eccentric and unstable locals who are involved in a search for diamonds. When four of the jewel hunters are found dead in the desert with the flesh stripped from their bodies, it's up to Alex to find out what's gone wrong, and he soon learns he's up against a menace unlike anything he's seen before. The Bone Snatcher also stars Rachel Shelley and Warrick Grier. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

 

Gigantic, intelligent electric eels are preventing the submarine crews of a United Nations mission to detonate nuclear charges in a growing fissure under the North Pole that is causing the Pole to melt at a disastrous rate. Capt. Andy Raines (David Keith) is brought in to help scientists Dr. Anne Fletcher (Simmone Jade Mackinnon) and Chomsky (Mark Sheppard) figure out how to defeat the eels and save the planet. Little do the rest of them know, but Dr. Fletcher has been communicating with them, and maybe on the side of the slippery fish. ~ Buzz McClain, Rovi

Season one of Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda begins as Captain Dylan Hunt (Kevin Sorbo) of the Systems Commonwealth high guard, is betrayed by his Nietzchean first officer Generis Rhade, whereupon Hunt and his starship, Andromeda Ascendant, are trapped in a black hole and left in frozen stasis for 300 years. During Hunt's long sleep, the Commonwealth collapses when the Nietzcheans declare war on their former allies in general and their hated enemies the Magog in particular. Awakening from suspended animation, Hunt finds that he and the Andromeda are under siege from the "Eureka Maru," a mercenary vessel captained by the beauteous Beka Valentine (Lisa Ryder), who has been hired to capture the Andromeda on behalf of the Nietzcheans. When she realizes that her "allies" plan to stab her in the back, Beka accepts Hunt's invitation to join him on the Andromeda and embark upon a mission to rally support for the restoration of the Commonwealth. Also going along for the ride are crew members Seamus Harper (Gordon Michael Woolvett), Trance Gemini (Laura Bertram), and Rev Bem (Brent Stait), the latter a Magog suffering the pangs of conscience over the bestial side of his nature. In addition, Hunt is backed up by Rommie (Lexa Doig), the sexy human manifestation of the Andromeda's artificial intelligence -- and, surprisingly, by maverick Nietzchean Tyr Anasazi (Keith Hamilton Cobb), whose loyalties fluctuate wildly throughout the season. In the season one finale, the Andromeda is attacked by the Magog, who capture Tyr and Harper and inject them with parasitical Magog larvae -- while Rommie, her memory accidentally wiped out, all but sells out everyone on the ship. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Executive-produced by Steven Spielberg, the ten-episode, 20-hour miniseries Taken was one of the most ambitious projects undertaken by cable TV's Sci-Fi Network, ultimately costing 40 million dollars -- a price that proved well worth it, inasmuch as the series posted the network's highest-ever ratings. Covering a period from 1947 to the present, the story focused on three different families, each of whom was profoundly affected by extraterrestrial visitation. The Keys family was headed by WWII bomber pilot Russell Keys (Steve Burton), who spent virtually his entire adult life haunted by his "close encounter" with aliens. The Clarkes were originally represented by lonely Texas waitress Sally Clarke (Catherine Dent), who was impregnated by a charming stranger (Eric Close) who turned out to be an alien survivor of the Roswell crash. And the lives of the Crawfords were dictated by ruthless Army officer Owen Crawford (Joel Gretsch), who was determined to prove that the government had covered up the truth about Roswell by dedicating his life to tracking down all space aliens and their half-human descendants. The story was narrated by Allie Keys (Dakota Fanning), a "hybrid" child of the present day, whose story determined the outcome of the final episodes. Boasting impressive computer-generated special effects and eye-popping facial makeup, Taken was seen over a two-week period, beginning December 2, 2002, and ending on December 13. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi